E6600 CPU & gaming on 1920x1200: HD5770 or HD5850?

[xboxist]

Quick question:

If someone wanted to stretch the life of their E6600, would a 5770 be able to handle 1920x1200 resolution? Or do I need to bump it up to a 5850? I want something that can definitely handle the resolution, but at the same time I'm not sure if there's such thing as video card overkill when teamed up with an older processor.

EDIT: CPU isn't OC'd, and using 4GB Corsair "value-select"

 

[EnzoLT]

if you can get the cpu to at least 3ghz then your gpu wouldnt be as constrained as when its in stock speed. for 19x12, you can probably get away with an hd5770 but not with high AA/AF as the bandwidth takes its toll. if anything, you can wait for the hd5830.

 

[xboxist]

Cool, thanks. Didn't even know a 5830 existed. I'll look into it.

 

[fffblackmage]

Cool, thanks. Didn't even know a 5830 existed. I'll look into it.

It doesn't. Not yet anyways.

 

[BFG10K]

An E6660 will be fine with even a 5870 if you use 1920x1200 with AA in modern games.

On my setup my GTX285 almost completely bottlenecks me, even when I run my E6850 @ 2 GHz.

 

[toyota]

yes you would need to bump up that cpu speed a bit to get the best use out of a 5850. leaving it a 2.4 will hurt you a bit especially with the minimum framerates in the more cpu intensive games for sure. overclocking your cpu would even help a little with a 5770 in some games but at 1920x1200 you are very much gpu limited.